Bethesda-Chevy Chase Cluster
Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS * Westland MS * Bethesda ES
Chevy Chase ES * North Chevy Chase ES * Rock Creek Forest ES
Rosemary Hills PS * Somerset ES * Westbrook ES
Testimony Before the Montgomery County Council
FY 2011 Capital Budget and the
FY 2011-2016 Capital Improvements Program
November 10, 2010
Good evening Superintendent Weast, President O’Neill, Members of the Board,
I am Craig Brown, and along with Mary Cobbett and Joy White, we represent the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster.
Tonight, my testimony will be broken into two sections, first I will testify about the projects that we are advocating for in this CIP, and second, I will testify on the Superintendent’s recommendations from this past summer’s roundtable meetings, and the subsequent amendments from the Board’s work session on the 4th of November.
First, the current 6-year CIP budget and the additional amendments in this year’s CIP represent a significant commitment to invest in the B-CC Cluster schools. We thank the Board for these recommendations. We are also grateful for the activities already in flight at two of our elementary schools. Moreover, we cannot emphasize enough the importance to adequately fund the Modernization of Rock Creek Forest Elementary. This year, the County Council must allocate funding for planning. This is a critical year to keep the Modernization on track. The Cluster does not want to see this project delayed, and we ask for your support to help advocate with the County Council to keep this long overdue project on track. Finally, the Superintendant has recommended in this year’s amendment a feasibility study for B-CC HS in 2012. We welcome the recommendation.
Now, I would like to focus the remainder of my time on the Superintendent’s recommendations for our Cluster and the Board’s working session last week.
First, the Cluster recognizes and appreciates all of the hard work MCPS has done to focus time and attention on our Cluster’s myriad of challenges. The issues that we have been facing have been building up for years, and this level of activity should have begun a number of years ago. Regardless, we now need to proceed in a manner that is thoughtful, comprehensive, and with the full representation of all of our schools.
The overwhelming response from our community is that the roundtables did not adequately address the needs of the cluster as a whole. The central recommendation, a new Middle School was made without 3 elementary schools even at the table to provide comment. Moreover, the recommendation did not adequately address in any detail how to best handle the 6th grade curriculum deficits before a second middle school is completed. The Bethesda articulation pattern was pushed out for a number of years.
I would like to present a quick review of what was recommended by the Superintendent and augmented, by the Board’s working session: Find a site for the second Middle School. Complete a feasibility study for that school. Give our 6th graders an appropriate education. Complete a boundary study. Add capacity at a number of schools through a series of additions. Establish a liberal transfer policy for the 6th graders at the Chases and reduce the 6th grade population in the elementary schools. Transfer all Chase 6th graders to Westland. Add portables at the middle school.
Parents—you have less than 4 weeks (and in the case of a response to the Board Working session, only 4 business days) to synthesize this information and provide feedback). School Board—we’re looking for a vote on these recommendations.
I would like to call out the hard work our Cluster PTA’s have done to comb through and analyze these recommendations and determine their full impact. After the Superintendent’s recommendations were released, we met, as an entire Cluster, with PTA representatives from all of our schools, to review the recommendations, gather responses and to begin formulating a Cluster-wide response. Multiple school PTA’s have scrambled to put together surveys to obtain feedback. Meetings have been held at individual schools. However, with that being said, Members of the Board, I am here to strongly state, there is NO way our Cluster, can provide an approval to everything in this recommendation, and expect a successful outcome, when we’ve had such a short period of time to determine its impact. Second, what has been offered up as options stretch across a time horizon that will be, at best 7-9 years long. Moreover, the price tag will be very significant, and due to that price tag, there will most likely be delays. Lastly, we barely have any green space in our Cluster as it is, and each piece of property owned by MCPS is a small parcel of land, so where are we realistically going to build a middle school without having to pay millions of dollars to acquire real estate?
Now, I will do my best to break down this complex myriad of issues, lay out what can and cannot be done in the near term, what is outstanding, and some possible next steps. Together we can improve this process and ultimately get to a common goal.
Let’s begin with the Middle School Recommendations
We recognize that Westland Middle School is already out of space, and a second school is needed. We are in support of finding a site and beginning the feasibility process for our second Middle School, however challenging as this may be. Moreover, as a Cluster, diversity in our student population is very important to us. Therefore, we need to be mindful as we investigate our options for boundaries for the second Middle School and Westland, that diversity is taken into consideration. All schools in our cluster need to be represented in this process, and that needs to begin with the location analysis.
As noted, Westland is out of space, and will most likely require portables by next year. Mr. Crispell indicated that the school may place the Cluster back into Moratorium within a year or two, just based on population growth projections, without adding the 6th graders from Chevy Chase and N. Chevy Chase. With that being said, does it make sense to stretch Westland further and add the projected 200+ extra 6th grade students from the Chases at Westland when it’s already out of space? How much will all those portables cost the School System? A liberal transfer policy will only make matters worse; it would lower the number of 6th grade students in the elementary school, and would most likely further diminish class offerings at those schools. Our Middle School recommendation is to not make matters worse in the 2011-2012 school year: Fund the necessary teachers in the Chases and let’s do our best to educate the 6th graders in place. Our first priority is our children, and let’s take care of them first and foremost.
I would like to address some key points about Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase Elementary Schools. First, the majority of parents in the community do support the principle of 6th graders in a second Middle School to serve the Cluster. Second, the PTA Leadership at both schools is not in support of a liberal transfer policy where some children stay and others leave. Third, I would like to look a little more closely at North Chevy Chase’s current situation. North Chevy Chase has the worst of three worlds. It is significantly over capacity. It has no gymnasium. And finally, it has a 6th grade program that has seen its staffing reduced and programs dropped. Why this school’s over-capacity issue isn’t being addressed immediately with the gymnasium program seems to not make sense. Regardless of what is happening with the 6th graders, the school will need capacity and it’s time to get moving on this project.
B-CC High School
Our high school is at full capacity, and projections will have it significantly over capacity in short order. Throughout the upcoming work, the impact on the High School must be kept top of mind, it is the facility that will ultimately have to take on our increased enrollment and we want to make certain work is timed appropriately, we do not want to wait too long and end up compromising the programs at the High School because of lack of space.
School Additions at Rosemary Hills and Bethesda ES
The commitment to complete a series of studies for additions at 2 of our elementary schools is welcomed, and sorely needed. Let’s move ahead with the boundary study so that we can determine what we need from a facility standpoint, and then move forward.
Cluster Overcrowding
The parents of our Cluster love our local schools, and the families have chosen to live in our neighborhoods so that their children can attend B-CC Cluster schools. One possible scenario that was presented last week was the possibility of having B-CC Cluster residents send their children to schools outside of our cluster. This is not an option that the parent community will support.
Cluster overcrowding must be addressed, and this challenge requires a thorough, disciplined, and practical study. We recommend a full review of all student flows through the middle and high school, an examination of the Change of School Assignment Process, and all other mechanisms that could potentially increase the overall student population throughout the Cluster.
In a cluster where we are clearly out of space, the issue of overcrowding cannot simply be resolved by promising more capacity. Other systemic and program issues must be researched, analyzed, and options presented to the Cluster’s parent population.
In recent days, Cluster parents have heard a whole host of options offered up, and there seems to be rumors throughout the cluster and MCPS about how to move children out into other schools, or change programs. The energy around speculating what to do needs to be redirected towards a factual, objective study so that we can make reasoned decisions.
With all of those challenges, here are our key near-term recommendations to move forward:
First: We recommend maintaining the Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase 6th grade population in the elementary schools for at least 1 more year. However, their programs should be staffed at their 2008 levels. Let’s use the next year and half wisely so that we can focus on determining how to best handle their education, placement, and transportation. We imagine that this would be a more cost-effective than rushing off to add a significant number of portables at Westland.
Second: Move ahead with the Boundary study for Bethesda ES. The over-due work to update the current articulation patterns for East Bethesda neighborhood and the Paddington Square Apartments needs to begin. The community has had this long-standing issue and it needs to be addressed. This should not wait for the possible second Middle School to be in construction.
Third: Complete a Cluster Overcrowding Analysis that will provide clarity around what are the variables causing overcrowding, and ultimately, those data points can provide the Cluster parent population better insight into student matriculation patterns as well as the genesis over capacity at Cluster schools. This analysis needs to include the COSA process and any other mechanisms used by in-bound students from outside the Cluster as well as an analysis of programs within the cluster. We recommend that this analysis be performed by an independent team that is not directly responsible for this function, to reduce the potential for any conflict of interest.
Fourth, complete the facility location review for a potential middle school. However, we believe we need to prioritize who is going to go to this school in advance of any construction design. If we indeed find property to put it, let’s determine how much capacity we need, and then determine how to design it.
All of these actions should be directed with cluster-wide parent oversight and include representation from MCPS educational program staff, facilities staff, and construction experts. A charter and a set of well-defined objectives must be set, cost models, time lines, and multiple options must be identified. With this approach, we will have a comprehensive team with clear focus accountable to address all aspects of our challenges, provide thoughtful recommendations, across both capital and operating budgets.
Once the near term work is completed, we can objectively decide on what are the best options to move forward, begin any necessary construction design work, place the 6th graders in the best environment available, and successfully begin moving our Cluster in the right direction.
Thank you.
B-CC Cluster Capital Improvements Program (CIP) Needs
MCPS FY2011 November 10, 2010
B-CC Cluster Comments to the Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2011-2016 Capital Budget and Capital Improvements Program (CIP)
A. Request for Individual Projects:
Additions:
Overall, we are looking forward to actively participate in the actions outlined by the Board in the CIP.
a) Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Addition:
Funds need to be provided for interior alterations at B-CC High School. There is a need for additional lab space for our Science Classes, due to our increased
enrollment, we are falling short of specialized space for our standard
chemistry/science courses, and the conversions of regular class space to labs is necessary.
Modernizations
We applaud MCPS’ efforts to work with the County Council to maintain the progress of modernizations throughout the system. We have one modernization in the queue, Rock Creek Forest, and continue to advocate for its completion.
a) Rock Creek Forest Elementary School Modernization:
The Council and School Board have committed to completing this project, not only because the school is in desperate need of modernization, but to alleviate the overcrowding in the Cluster. This modernization will bring a significant number of additional classrooms and must not be delayed. The commitment has been made, the feasibility study is beginning to move along, and we fully expect this project to stay on track. It must be deemed a high-priority by MCPS.